People Keep Taking Photos Of Garbage Bins In This Weird New Meme
Bin Lid Stands, it’s so hot right now.
Bin lid stands – photos of council garbage bins leaning on their lids – is a meme 24 months in the making that is finally paying dividends.
In February 2014, the Bin Lid Stands Facebook page was created for a relatively small group of people to upload photos of bins. The first example, a "standard 'stand and fall' entry", got no likes, no shares, and no attention.
Now, the Bin Lid Stands Facebook page has grown to almost 30,000 members, with some bin lid stands receiving more than a thousand likes and hundreds of comments.
Creator of the Bin Lid Stands Facebook page, Tim Fox, told BuzzFeed News it all started as "just a bit of fun".
"The momentum of the page's following has come in waves," he said, "but seems to have picked up the pace over recent months".
"The catch is that once you know what a BLS is, you can't help but keep an eye out for them and your bins get a new opportunity to showcase their BLS prowess every weekly bin night."
More than a meme, the page describes bin lid standing as a sport, with multiple categories and measures of difficulty.
Categories range from "singe" (a bin lid stand involving only one bin) to "supported" (when the bin lid stand is supported by an object that is not a bin).
Both the angle of the bin and its distance from the curb are considered when rankings are given out by page moderators and members of the community.
Fox says the growth of a supportive community has been crucial to BLS's success.
"Growing the page as a supportive community has been an important ingredient for the page's success," he said. "The fans are heavily engaged with the posts. There's quite a few different perspectives on judging and all opinions are valid. Our fan base is mostly Australian, which is either because of our sense of humour or other countries don't have these bins - probably both!"
Many have tried to define what a "perfect 10" would look like.
"A 10 must be perfection in the absolute description of the word, flawless, beauty, perfection," wrote "BLS enthusiast" Josh Halikos on the page.